The present invention relates to a power source control device for holding confidentiality of information stored on an electronic device by controlling a supply of electronic power to the electronic device.
There have hitherto been a variety of systems for preventing an electronic device from being operated by a party other than persons concerned in order to hold confidentiality of confidential information such as individual information retained on a device (an electronic device) like an information terminal and inside information of an enterprise, which should not be leaked outside.
Among the systems that restrict users of the electronic device, there is, for example, a system providing a password in a basic input/output system (BIOS) installed into the information terminal. In this system, the BIOS is booted after the information terminals has been supplied with electric power, and the user is requested to input the password during the booting of the BIOS. The information terminal does not come to a standby status (where an operating system (OS) is booted) till a correct password is inputted by the user. The information terminal comes to the standby status and is thereby capable of being operated. It is therefore impossible in this system to enable the information terminal to be in the standby status unless the user input correct password. Hence, the persons concerned retain the password confidentially, whereby the information terminal can be prevented from being operated by a party other than the persons concerned.
The system providing the password in the BIOS described above is, however, incapable of ensuring a sufficient number of digits of the password. Further, there a possibility in which the user might select an inadequate password (a password that can be easily deduced by the party other than the persons concerned, such as initials, a date of birth, a telephone number, etc. of the user). For these reasons, there is a possibility wherein the party other than the persons concerned might easily discover the password.
Moreover, the system described above invariably prepares a cancellation method (such as a method of setting the electronic device in a standby status even if the password is not inputted, a method of setting a password afresh, and so on) generally in consideration of such a case that the user might forget the password. It is easy for the party other than the persons concerned to know the cancellation method, and the cancellation method has widely spread.
The information terminal, which has already been supplied with the electric power (the BIOS has already operated), has the possibility of being set in the standby status and operated by the party other than the persons concerned due to such causes that the password is thus easily known and that the cancellation unit has spread widely.
The present invention aims at providing a system capable of making it difficult for the party other than the persons concerned to set the electronic device in the standby status by supplying the electric power to the electronic device.